Empty array in string breaking deserialization

Question

I have a string of JSON that I'm trying to convert into a list. There is an empty array value which is breaking the deserialization (have tried removing it manually or changing to a number and it works). Was thinking I could try to replace the [] in the string, but is there a better way to work around this?

public class Tax
{
    public string Id;
    public string Name;
    public string PathOfTerm;
    public string Children;
    public string Level;
    public string RawTerm;
}

var exString = "[{\"Id\":\"12345\",\"Name\":\"aName\",\"PathOfTerm\":\"aTerm\",\"Children\":[],\"Level\":0,\"RawTerm\":null}]";
JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var taxData = ser.Deserialize<List<Tax>>(exString);

Have you tried making your model reflect your JSON instead? It looks like Children should be an array (can't tell what kind here) rather than a string... — Jon Skeet
– Jon Skeet, Commented May 25, 2017 at 16:20
Yep thanks that was it. Didn't realize that couldn't be converted to a string — cooper
– cooper, Commented May 25, 2017 at 16:25

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-25 16:29:20Z

7

The value is an array, but your field is a string. I suggest you make it an array (or list) of the appropriate type - we can't tell what that type would be from your JSON, but perhaps you want a string array?

I'd also suggest using properties instead of public fields.

(If you can move to Json.NET, I'd generally recommend that over JavaScriptSerializer, too...)

answered May 25, 2017 at 16:29

Jon Skeet

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